Category Archives: Competition

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Recently, I was evaluating a HK VP9 that was done up by Grayguns, Inc. I was shooting string after string on the timer. I noticed that somewhere south of .22 splits on multi-shot strings, my accuracy fell apart. I dismissed the VP9 as being inferior, due to the stock box P320 Carry giving me nice little piles of bullet holes at .16-.18 splits. Continue reading →

This was the second year of the Top Cop Pistol Championship, held at the Broward County Sheriff’s Office Range at Markham Park in Sunrise, Florida. The match drew over 110 competitors and the proceeds from the match benefitted the The Broward Sheriff’s Advisory Council, a charity whose mission is to provide financial assistance to the families of officers killed or disabled in the line of duty. In addition, they also help develop educational programs to assist and support the State of Florida in drug abuse prevention and crime prevention. Continue reading →

Last weekend I was at the range with a party of different shooters and friends. There were several kinds of props and targets and everyone was having a good time shooting. The group consisted of some novice shooters and at one station there was a military guy with his “babe” of a girlfriend. She had taken up a stock Glock and was trying to knock down plates on the plate rack. Well…she was struggling. She was jerking the trigger, throwing shots repeatedly to the left driving through the magazine. At this point, her “stud” came over and told her the all knowing advice of “slow dow and get your hits!” Duh! Just slow down and get your hits. Of course this did NOT go well. Our heroine tried her heart out but only managed to miss slowwwwly. Continue reading →

To be or not to be, that is the question…or for us, it’s should I shoot on the move?

As a law enforcement trainer, I am routinely asked to incorporate shooting drills that have the officers shooting while moving. In class, there are always students who push for that type of training especially in anything considered Advanced. But what is shooting on the move? Continue reading →

Too often it has been my experience with law enforcement shooters (and competition too) that the need to pull the trigger “now” supersedes the requirement of hitting the target. It’s like a building pressure in the mind that shooters will settle for less than an acceptable sight picture and blast off a round..or two..or three. It’s almost as if a self gratifying sound and feeling overwhelms what the process should be. Continue reading →

I am here today to share with you a trick that the “BIG SCHOOLS” don’t want you to know. If you don’t want to shoot better like a NAVY SEAL in just two hours, please leave this blog now. This is for those who are serious, for those who want instant improvement in their practice. This one “Weird Trick” discovered by a stay at home mom wanting to learn to defend herself from the upcoming zombie apocalypse. Please, stay until the end of this blog if you are serious.

This one “weird” trick is called PRACTICE. There are no slick fixes. There are no pills, no potions that will take a D class shooter, and make them a Master class.

It seems the “ONE WEIRD TRICK” “HOW TO LOSE BELLY FAT WHILE EATING PIZZA THREE MEALS A DAY” or “FIND OUT THE REAL REASON OBAMA WANTS YOUR GUNS” meme has started to lurk into the firearms community. The sideshow barker lures you in with an instant cure for diabetes from an ad showing a Jelly Doughnut. Or warns you that “For those not serious about defending your family with the tricks of real world special forces operators need to leave this video now” all the while showing a bearded, multicam clad meat eater with his face blacked out.

I get that the firearms community has been hawking stuff for years with the claim of making us better and faster. Variations of the sights that I call the “Alien versus Predator” sights that claim that it makes you faster on target. Yet, every special ops unit and top tier competitor I know is using standard sights. Some with a fiber optic front, some with a standard front blade. If these huge, colorful sights that come together making an homage to the pharaohs were so good, you’d think they’d be on every gun in USPSA,, and CAG would order 500 sets of them. Apparently, these folks haven’t discovered how fast these sights make you.

There is no magic fix other than practice. The more you dry fire, the more you practice, the better you will become. Say it with me, the faster you will become. Recently, I had a buddy of mine who is just getting back into shooting USPSA after a lay off come to me with a question. At his last match, he won his division by a hair. He said that he sucked, but everyone just sucked a little more than he did that day. He was concerned that some of the younger guys were faster than him. He was sure that he was too slow, and wanted help putting a plan together to get faster. I asked him when the last time he devoted 15 minutes to dry firing and he replied “Oh, I have not practiced in months”. There your problem, you’ve got mud in your tires.

We as a nation seemed to be fixated on quick fixes. Time and practice makes us better.

The one “WEIRD TIP” is the same that it has been for decades. Practice. Train with a plan. Dry Fire. You’ll like the results.

What is the Top Cop Pistol Championship (www.topcop.org)? The Broward Sheriff’s Advisory Council (an independent organization whose sole purpose is to raise money for the families of fallen officers and firefighters) thought there should be a pistol match where cops could shoot against each other regardless if they’ve competed in a sanctioned match (IPSC/USPSA, IDPA, GSSF, NRA, PPC, etc.) They also felt the match would bolster inter-agency rivalries in a fun way and raise money with a Tribute Dinner to all who have fallen in Broward County, FL. Continue reading →

On the heels of the announcement of the collaboration between Wilson Combat and Beretta guru Ernest Langdon, Wilson Combat has just announced they will be hosting Ernest for a “How to Run a Beretta Handgun” Course at the Wilson Ranch in Cuthand, Texas. Die hard Beretta aficionados will immediately recognize Ernest as the industry’s most knowledgeable instructor on running and modifying the Beretta handgun. A prior member for the Beretta shooting team, Ernest’s competition career has earned him countless national IDPA and USPSA titles with a double action pistol. He also has extensive military experience as an end user and instructor.

So as we head into the final stretch of our exploration on why competition is good (no great) for the tactical world, we have one more area to cover. I’d like to talk about stage planning and visualization.

There are several ways of stage planning so for most of this article I want to focus on USPSA style of stage planning. “Well, what is stage planning?” Good question. In USPSA, at a match, the rules allow competitors up to five minutes to look over a stage, walk through it and air gun (not air guitar) as they walk through. Let’s break down those parts. Continue reading →

What happened? 4 misses, 2 no shoots..but a smoking time. So what? Yeah, you were fast, but what did you hit? But I was fast…Heard that scenario many times at matches. But what about this one?

“Today in NYC, three bystanders were shot by police as they attempted to take down a murder suspect in front of the Empire State Building (true story).” I don’t want to get into specifics on the brave LEOs facing an armed killer, since 20/20 hindsight is always easier than being there. However, a lot can be learned from these kinds of events.

WARNING: The following is based on my opinion and like your opinion, we all got one. I ask you to check your ____ and continue to read. YMMV… Continue reading →

Last time we left off on the crusade to make competition safe for the tactical world, we were making the case that stress introduced into shooting causes interesting results. Being able to work through the stress of the timer will always improve your shooting ability.

I just got back from competing in a major international shooting competition where I saw and experienced different levels of stress. The funny thing about stress (aside from actual physical stress) is that it’s only in the mind. That’s right. Stress is in the mind. Stress has nothing to do with shooting. Does it? What constitutes shooting? Lining up the sights and pulling the trigger. No where in that equation does the word “stress” make an appearance. “I hope I won’t miss”, “I suck at steel”, “I hate qualification” etc. All mental problems that have nothing to do with shooting. Being able to turn off the mental stress (conscious mind) and replace it with subconscious skill comes only with repeated practice. However, you can practice and practice by yourself for eternity, but you need a way to test it. That comes from shooting competitions. Continue reading →

“Don’t go swimming after you just ate a meal”, “You’ll get sick if you go outside with wet hair” and of course, “shooting competition will get you killed!” (from the Tactical Bible..)

Axioms to live by..or maybe we need to use critical thinking to get past what easily could be described as sacred mumbo jumbo. Why? In this four part series I’m going to present an argument on why competition is good for the tactical soul. Continue reading →

If you shoot nonreactive (fixed) steel targets regularly where frangible ammunition is not required (it rarely is) or the steel has been shot a great deal (it usually has), you likely have been hit by ricocheting bullet or jacket fragments. My experience suggests one is usually hit from the shots of others, and to a much lesser extent from reactive steel. (Ricochets also occur in indoor ranges when shooting paper targets, due to walls, floors, and metal objects downrange, or backstop integrity issues). Ricochets can be large, sharp, and travel at sufficient velocity to pierce skin and draw blood, sometimes even through a layer of clothing. A bullet or jacket fragment can become embedded in an open wound at skin level or deeper, and can cause most types of wounds; laceration, incision, avulsion, or puncture. A puncture wound (also referred to as penetrating trauma) is the type most likely to do damage beneath the skin and require professional medical attention even though superficial bleeding is stopped. I have seen each of those type wounds, and one likely arterial and two venous bleeds caused by fragment ricochets. Continue reading →

For many years, the internal extractors in later model SIG P-Series pistols have been somewhat problematic. The problems have been largely hit and miss, but were evident in some of the X5 pistols, as well as the P220 and others fielding the internal design. SIG eventually switched out to the short external extractor, and currently to a long external extractor.

My mentor, Bruce Gray at GrayGuns, INC has been working on the problem for several years and has finally come up with a “fix” for the reliability issues with the internal extractor guns. As can be observed in the video, the new extractor cleans up ejection and extraction, making it consistent and reliable. The process involves fitting the new extractor to the individual pistol and tuning it for reliability. The turn around time is about 10 days, and the cost for the modification is $200.

Socks are an often overlooked but important piece of kit. The importance of high quality and application specific socks cannot be overstated, whether you are military, LE, hiker, hunter, urban walker, runner/jogger, competition shooter, or stand protective post or at a workbench for extended periods. I have been trying different socks for some 30 years. Continue reading →